South Africa should not see itself as the “criminal skunk” of the world
by Fred Roed on 08/03/07 at 9:38 pm
No comments
“Every society gets the number of criminals it deserves”.
This from Dap Louw, a psychology professor at the University of the Free State, who believes that South Africa should not be so negative about itself. The comment seems contradictory to his beliefs, but in a very interesting article on IOL, Louw is actually quoting 9th century French criminologist Jean Lacassagne. Louw believes that the current crime should be seen in the context of a dramatically changing society. He is saying that we should not sit back and plead helplessness – we must do what we can to fight crime.
“We lived in an abnormal society (apartheid), now we live in a normal society in a country in transition.”
Louw said other transitional countries who had experienced the same crime situation as South Africa were Russia, Estonia, Cambodia and Poland.
“The media in other non-transitional countries like America, Wales, England and Australia had also reported on ‘concerns’ of an increase of violent crime in 1996.”
“These people are in the same boat as you and me,” Louw said, himself also a crime victim having being stabbed twice in the back.
Looking at the causes of crime, Louw said South Africans should not look further than themselves and must stop pointing fingers at others.
It’s a good article – check it out. It gives you a healthy counter-perspective in the face of the barrage of anti-SA sentiment out there.
Fred Roed is the marketing guy in the Ideate crew. He runs a web marketing company called World Wide Creative and loves writing about people out there doing marketing right. View more articles by Fred Roed.
